ALBUM REVIEW: 7 Sinners (Remastered 2020) – Helloween
7 Sinners has always occupied an interesting position in HELLOWEEN’s discography, arguably standing as the band’s last great album to date. While successors Straight Out Of Hell and My God Given Right weren’t bad releases by any stretch, they lacked some of the spark that the power metal progenitors are known for and didn’t deliver on the fierce promises made by 7 Sinners. Perhaps it was the result of being the direct follow up to Unarmed (a compilation of semi-acoustic, pseudo-jazz-band reimaginations of HELLOWEEN classics), but 7 Sinners stands out due to unquestionably being one of the band’s heaviest albums. Ten years after its initial release, Nuclear Blast have seen fit to give 7 Sinners the remastering treatment, shining the spotlight on an oft-overlooked gem.
Between the ferocious opening toms of Where The Sinners Go and the aggro guitars of the hilariously on the nose Are You Metal?, HELLOWEEN immediately set the tone for something more aggressive than usual on 7 Sinners. While the old-school HELLOWEEN DNA is bubbling under the surface throughout, ensuring lightning fast guitar and melodic overtones are still the order of the day, the album as a whole takes far more of a leaf out of The Dark Ride’s book than it does anything from the Keeper Of The Seven Keys Parts I & II era. So much so that a number of tracks feel like they would have fit right in the 2000 record; the pummelling muted riffs, double kick and Andi Deris’s piercing vocals on You Stupid Mankind and the weighty, pounding guitars of power ballad The Smile Of The Sun recall some of The Dark Ride’s biggest highs and are all the better for it.
Of course, even at their darkest, HELLOWEEN have rarely been ones to take themselves completely seriously and, thankfully, the band’s quirky humour pokes out from the more metallic veneer. The peak of this is on one of the album’s few upbeat tracks, Raise The Noise, which sees its middle eight topped with a rampant flute solo that can only be described as surprisingly tasteful. It’s also interesting to see HELLOWEEN twist some of their more tongue-in-cheek legacy with Who Is Mr. Madman?, a sequel of sorts to Master Of The Rings’ Perfect Gentleman. While including a few musical nods to its predecessor via some well-placed synth hooks, the song sees HELLOWEEN spin one of their more infectiously inaner songs in to something more sinister, yet equally ridiculous.
For all its initial vitality however, 7 Sinners rather abruptly runs out of steam towards its end with a handful of tracks that add some unneeded bloat to the album. If A Mountain Could Talk and My Sacrifice both have enjoyable moments, but don’t meet the high benchmark set by earlier tracks, whereas the combo of Not Yet Today and Far In The Future feels like some of the more plodding moments from 2005’s Keepers: The Legacy.
The 2020 version of 7 Sinners is extended further with several bonus tracks that were scattered across different editions of the original album. As is often typical for HELLOWEEN, a significant portion of bassist extraordinaire Markus Grosskopf’s writing contributions make up the B-side material here with all three tracks credited solely to him. Although off-cuts, each one has something highly enjoyable to offer, with the weakest of the bunch (I’m Free) still being a fun, if slightly twee, romp. Faster We Fall however is a real gem. Driven by pummelling toms and punctuated by orchestral hits, it also boasts a wonderful vocal performance from Deris. As he jumps between lilting melody and biting venom, the song erupts in a real earwig of a chorus before making away for an excellent solo section. Similarly, Aiming High lives up to its name thanks to its vicious speed, fiery guitar leads, bouncing chord progressions and flying chorus all channelling a more traditional HELLOWEEN vibe. Both of these numbers more than hold their own amongst the material on the album proper and would have been a welcome inclusion over a handful of the its final tracks.
Additional tracks aside, you would be hard pressed to outline significant differences to the original release of 7 Sinners. Although its subtle, the remastering has certainly provided an added punch to the production. Guitars are armed with more weight and grit behind their chords, whereas bass lines and kick drums cut through more clearly that in their original guise. Whilst not a dramatic change, the remastering helps bring out even more of the album’s heaviness, accentuating the defining feature of 7 Sinners.
Although leaning on the long side, 7 Sinners stands as one of HELLOWEEN’s best post-millennium albums and one more deserving of recognition within their overall discography. While the remastering itself is not a vital reason to give this release a look in, the overall strength of its material coupled with some genuinely compelling bonus tracks make the 2020 version of 7 Sinners the definitive way to dive in to one of the band’s heaviest endeavours to date.
Rating: 8/10
7 Sinners (Remastered) is out now via Nuclear Blast Records.
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